5 months

Vivi, you are 5 months already! Where has the time gone? You are growing so much I can hardly keep up! First I have to say that you love your big sister! You two are as different as can be, but you love to watch her run around and you love to giggle with her even if you don't know what she's laughing about. I know that down the road there will be differences in opinions and tears shed, but I hope you will remember how much you love one another always.

You've hit so many milestones this past month. You started eating solid foods (cereals) and you kind of liked that. Though you prefer to nurse with mom. Sometimes it seems as if you like to bite the spoon and feel the mushy food in your mouth more than you actually like to eat it. You have two cute little teeth that you got rather early. You are a champion roller. In fact, when left on the ground that is all you like to do! You roll back and forth all day long.

You found your voice and you love to make your opinions known with a myriad of cute squeals, grunts, and giggles. You also love to put everything you can into your mouth. Sometimes I am not quick enough and you already have a piece of paper in your mouth. You especially love to chew on rubber lizards. He never really had a chance, did he?

You're a really laid back baby but you have a quick temper. You love those around you the most and are wary of strange new faces. You're definitely a momma's girl which means I get to lug all 15 pounds of you around for most of the day.

But, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love you.

Flaming Gorge

A couple of weekends ago we took a trip to Flaming Gorge in my parents' sweet new 5th wheel trailer. It was so nice to be able to sleep in comfort with 2 young kids in tow. It was also nice to visit the beautiful gorge. As we were driving through the Sheep Creek geological loop and again when we were looking down at the gorge from the Red Canyon Lodge visitor's center I couldn't help but think about what a beautiful country we live in. That trip I was taken by the immense rock formations that tell a story of millions of years in every bend and twist of its crevices and peaks. God's creations are truly magnificent....just wanted to share that with you all.

Humpty Dump

Me: Maya, what if Humpty Dumpty fell on a hot frying pan on the stove?

Maya: (long pause) he would crack and then he would cook. He would be a cooked Humpty Dump and then we can eat him!

Maya keeps me laughing just about every day now. She says some pretty clever things. Just lately, she's been really into nursery rhymes (thanks to grandma) and she's got a couple of them almost fully memorized. It's also really fun to tell her stories (besides just reading them to her from books). It's amazing how much she understands now. Last night I told her a famous folk tale from Korea about two brothers and magic pumpkins. What else is she up to? She's starting to be a lot more interested in letters and what the letters spell out. She'll ask me what does this say and things like that. She's also starting to understand that each letter makes a sound and we've been practicing sounds together. She's growing so fast!

Sisters

I never had one but I am glad that these two have each other. When I was pregnant with Vivi, I was so worried about how Maya was going to take everything. I've read so many stories of older siblings doing horrible things because of jealousy or reverting back to their baby days. Would Maya know that we love her? How would she react to the new baby? I am blessed. Maya is the best older sister anyone could ask for. She plays with Vivi, she helps me out with Vivi, and most of all she loves Vivi. There are moments of jealousy but mostly she shows it by trying to get the attention back on her (e.g singing louder, being more obnoxious...etc.). The neat thing now is that Vivi is starting to pay a lot of attention to Maya. She watches her when she plays and when she sings and a lot of the time she has a big smile on her face.

Yay for sisters!

Hunt for the Elusive Grayling...over at last.

would you like a fish?


The summer before we left for Korea we just about camped ourselves silly. On one trip up to the Uintahs we were out to find the elusive artic grayling. Well folks, we finally found 'em! (after 2 years...)


Well, I guess Daniel found and caught them. I was technically at home asleep in my bed when Daniel snuck out this morning on an impromptu trip up the Uintahs after his grayling obsession.


The grayling has an awesome dorsal fin! I guess it lost some of its purple hue on the trip home in the icebox.

The others Daniel caught:
I guess now we're on the look out for a good grayling recipe....when we find one I'll let you know.

Summer Fun

Yesterday I was reminded of what summer should be like. Hot sunny days, cooler pleasant nights, best friends, and lots of fun. We had the neighbor kids over to have fun in the kiddie pool and, of course, popsicles!

Here's a picture of Maya and her best friend, Keri, from next door.
Cute, eh? I didn't actually get any pictures of them in action...I was too afraid to get shot with streams of water from the pool. They had fun watering our lawn and our trees.
Here's another picture of them off to more mischief next door:
I did get some pictures of Vivi in the pool, though

Needless to say we'll have the pool up again real soon.

Some Sunshine